BOCA RATON – Mayor Susan Whelchel has long been a fan of the color green – particularly as it applies to environmental sustainability.
The five Rotary Clubs in Boca Raton are banding together with the city’s chief executive to lunch the “Mayor’s Green Cup Challenge” later this year.
Mayor Susan Whelchel and Rotary Assistant District Governor Dave Freudenberg are shown at a recent meeting where she spoke to the group about the state of the city. The mayor and all five Rotary clubs in Boca Raton are set to launch an effort that would encourage young people to “greenify” the community through projects of their own creation.
‘The general idea is to issue the Challenge to any school-age group that can band together, identify a specific project to help “greenify” Boca Raton, register the project with Rotary — including before photos — complete the project in the month of May, and at the end the projects will be judged by the Mayor and the five Rotary presidents,” said Dave Freudenberg, himself the former president of the Rotary Club of Boca Raton and now assistant district governor.
“The winners will share in the $1,000 prize put up by the Rotary Clubs to be presented to them by the mayor at a City Council meeting.”
The groups will be made up of local school children kindergarten through grade 12. “They can be classes, social groups (Scouts, etc), sports teams or any other assembly,” said Freudenberg. “But they must have a connection with Boca Raton or at least have a Boca Raton address. That includes the county residents.”
‘We are still in the early stages as it will take a lot of work to bring this on,” the assistant district governor of Rotary said. “So far, I have met with the mayor and most council members, Parks and Recreation Department, assistant city manager, the Green Living Task Force, the county School Board member and several corporations, and, of course, all five Rotary Clubs in Boca. So far, everyone is very excited about the project”
Right now, the Parks and Recreation Department is identifying projects that could be used and I will be meeting with the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Board to seek their support.”
But Freudenberg stressed: “I am counting on the creativity and imagination of our young people to come up with ideas on “greenification” that exceed anything we could plan. And it can include help to some non-profits in the area like the Children’s Museum, Hospice and the Mae Volen Center. It could be fun just to see what the kids come up with to beautify the city and create a sense of improvement in making the city more eco-friendly.”
Freudenberg said plans call for introduction of the program in March, with a kickoff date of late April and work to be done in May. He said the FCATs have pushed back the proposed dates. He said that Rotarians at the district level are interested to see how it can duplicate this project for use in other areas.